Wishart speaks on Holocaust Memorial Day

Speaking on Holocaust Memorial Day, Scottish Liberal Democrat Beatrice Wishart MSP said:  

“This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘ordinary people,’ recognising how ordinary people were involved in all elements of the Holocaust.  We should look back, remember, learn and change.

“We learned from the testimonies of survivors like Lily Ebert. Her quite remarkable book, “Lily’s Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live,” is co-written with her great grandson. It’s an incredibly moving story about Lily’s early life in Hungary and how she survived the concentration camp when so many others, including her own family members, were exterminated.

“She found the strength to live. An ordinary person, but she continues to inspire others today.

“Since the Holocaust, we have witnessed genocides in the killing fields of Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.  

"Today, humanity is still inhumane to humanity.  

“In Afghanistan, we see the unequal and oppressive treatment of young girls and women forbidden from learning. And in Ukraine, a nation fights for its survival in an unprovoked conflict.  

“But that world has come together in an unprecedented way to united to support Ukraine, recognising a will to avoid a war touching every corner of the globe and supporting free people, backing a democratic government.

“The liberal-democratic structures we have built in the post-war era are vulnerable, fragile and need to be cherished.”